ICT 2006
Two weeks of ICT are finally over...time to get back to realities. It definitely has been quite an enjoyable 2 weeks, and most of the time, considered relaxing, at least in my opinion. Got the chance to catch up with old friends, friends that we only get to meet once a year during reservist (sounds quite sad though), also managed to get to know some new ppl, and also got to know those "hi-bye" acquitances better. Two weeks are neither a long nor short time, and ther are surely some interesting obersvations worth mentioning (without any breach of security, of course =p).First of all, it must be the power of our uniform. Designed to camoflage soldiers in jungle warfare, I realised that it works just as well, if not better, in urbanised area. Wearing my uniform, and carrying my barang barang, I stood at the side of the road, trying to get a cab to go to my camp. But it seems that the moment I put on my uniform, I became invisible to all taxi drivers. Countless empty cabs just zoom by despite my outstretch arm waving in a nice and friendly manner. Some even pick up speed as they approaches me. The speed limit is 50km/h, yet the sight of me automatically accelerates the taxis to travel beyond the speed limit. Despite being "camouflaged", there were still a number of taxi drivers who managed to differentiate me from my concrete surroundings. However, the moment they hear my destination, they conveniently said they are going some other places and sped off. It didn't help that it started to rain quite heavily. Desperate, I decided to call a cab. Yet despite so many empty cabs I saw in the vicinty, no cab answered my call. I thought they complained that business for taxis were bad. Forunately after an hour of waiting and rejections by dozens of cabs, a kind taxi uncle agreed to accept me as his passenger. Being grateful, I let him keep the change, something that I normally would not do when taking a cab, unless the change amount to less than a dollar.
Then of course, there were the human minds that once again proved to be the hardest to fathom as usual. There are the few who simply refuses to eat cookhouse food, prefering to eat at the canteen. Though cookhouse food aren't really gourmet standard, they are still good enough, and the food at the canteen weren't actually much better. Yet to these people, the plain idea that the food comes from the cookhouse immediately qualify it as food fit for Fear Factor.
And there is the strange phenomenon that world outside camp immediate become heaven once people are inside of camp. It doesn't matter how much they complain during the rest of the year about how boring "civilisation part" of Singapore is, how stressful their life is, how shitty their job is, and etc etc. During ICT, they yearn so much for the "life that sucks", to get back to all the things they supposedly detest so much. Yet it is not because ICT is demanding or anything. In fact, for most of us, it is more relaxing and stress-free compared to our everyday life. Yet it seems like hell for many of them. How strange. Continuing on this aspects, there will ocassionally some evenings when we can book out. On these occassions, LOT 1, the nearest shopping complex which is still a 20mins drive away, suddenly become the "hippest" place even though, during the rest of the year, these people will never even think of going there for any purpose. It seems that I'm the only one who doesn't see the joy of going out, together with a few who are too lazy to travel. They always seems puzzled when I replied that I don't want to go for the nights off. My answer "I'm already out there for the other 50 weeks" doesn't seems to make any sense to them.
Well...end of ICT...time to face the harsh world again...
posted by Ah Loy @ 9:03 PM
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